Advogato blog for alriddochhttp://www.advogato.org/person/alriddoch/
Advogato blog for alriddochen-usmod_virguleTue, 31 Mar 2015 22:04:10 GMTFri, 13 Jul 2001 11:16:40 GMT13 Jul 2001http://www.advogato.org/person/alriddoch/diary.html?start=6
http://www.advogato.org/person/alriddoch/diary.html?start=6<P>Acorn 0.4 is now done, and released. Announcing as soon
as it is on the mirrors. This is basically a note to myself
to sort out my priorities over the next few months.
<P>In the near future we basically need to create a stable
branch to finalise Acorn as playable and stable. I had
not initially planned to do this, but I am now shifting
towards thinking that it will be a long time before any
other WorldForge game efforts are stable, and it will be
useful to have a good looking working demo on the side to
show off on demand. STAGE is getting close to the point
where it will run in-game, and they really need the new
Atlas-C++ API to be ready to minimise the effort of
switching later on.
<P>Tasks for the next few months are therefor as follows:
<UL>
<LI>Complete Atlas-C++ 0.5.x API and release.
<LI>Port cyphesis over to working as an AI client.
<LI>Write RIMs for stage that implement Acorn.
<LI>Clean up and improve playability of Acorn on the
server side.
</ul>
Wish me luck.
Wed, 18 Apr 2001 13:52:40 GMT18 Apr 2001http://www.advogato.org/person/alriddoch/diary.html?start=5
http://www.advogato.org/person/alriddoch/diary.html?start=5<P>Loads of progress in cyphesis. Collision detection is now
working well, and allows objects to move along next to each
other in contact.
<P>Spent easter weekend doing a comprehensive review of the
code. Re-wrote quite a lot of it, especially re-naming
things to fit in with conventions, and using iterators
properlly. The code is now the fastest and most robust it
has ever been. I will probably release a version as soon
as there is nothing left that I am ashamed of.
<P>The main work to complete in the short term is the
persistance layer. Loading a list of client entities
into the persistance database before the world is started
is probably the best way to handle the whole area of
maintaining client side entity maps.Fri, 23 Mar 2001 12:06:07 GMT23 Mar 2001http://www.advogato.org/person/alriddoch/diary.html?start=4
http://www.advogato.org/person/alriddoch/diary.html?start=4<P>Debugged the collision detection code in cyphesis, sorted
out the problem with created entities inheriting bounding
boxes from the creator, and made an attempt at handling
two moving entities colliding.
<P>Added Structure base class for buildings or other server
entities that the player can move into. Modified collision
rules so that if an entity collides with a structure
bounding box, the entity move into that structure, making
it possible to move in and out of buildings.
<P>Started work on a simple library for rendering building
blocks using the off screen Mesa GL library.
<P>Loading of terrain info into the client must be
separated from loading of entity information, as the two
are not that closely related, and the server must be able
to get full information about the pre-defined entities in
the world, which it currently cannot do from the terrain
map format.Sat, 3 Mar 2001 19:04:33 GMT3 Mar 2001http://www.advogato.org/person/alriddoch/diary.html?start=3
http://www.advogato.org/person/alriddoch/diary.html?start=3<P>Started work on a simple astronomy system, basically so
that the moon can be represented properly for the
werewolf system, but I figured I should probably do it
right the first time, rather than have to come back and
re-visit. Initially started working on it as an
earth-centric system, but Sal pointed out that it would
be better if it was sun-centric, which actually makes
alot of it easier.
<P>Still struggling with how to deal with loading Acorn
map files into the server, and handle entity id parity
with the client, which may have loaded a slightly
different version of the same map. Do we need to extend
the map format to include id?Thu, 1 Mar 2001 19:12:33 GMT1 Mar 2001http://www.advogato.org/person/alriddoch/diary.html?start=2
http://www.advogato.org/person/alriddoch/diary.html?start=2<P>First update for a while, been very busy.
<P>Early last month I wrote a watchdog daemon for cyphesis
that keeps a server running, initialises it and monitors
it, to automate game server administration.
<P>Ranges have now been implemented, which massively
reduces the bandwidth used by each client in a game. Range
is currently based on axis aligned square areas rather
than circles as it really should be. The reason for this
is primarily to maximise performance.
<P>Cleaned up and optimised much of the cyphesis code. This
together with changes to the Atlas protocol library means
that server load is much lower than previously.
<P>Wrote the collision detection code for cyphesis using
AABB collision detection and prediction algorithms.
Finally added in simple collision resolution so walking
characters can no longer walk through each other.
<P>Added MetaServer functionality to cyphesis, based on the
WorldForge metaserver example code provided. All seems to
work fine, but is as yet unsupported by any clients. This
combined with the information that a client can now
retrieve by sending a "get" operation directly after
connection should mean that a client could offer a nice
menu of all current running servers.
<P>Currently working on making the handling of C++ base
classes with python derived classes more generic so that
more code can be moved into C++.Sat, 3 Feb 2001 18:39:42 GMT3 Feb 2001http://www.advogato.org/person/alriddoch/diary.html?start=1
http://www.advogato.org/person/alriddoch/diary.html?start=1<P>Fleshed out the media server ideas a bit more, and
wrote the basis for some clients. Came up with a debug
message control scheme that I am happy with, and
fitted it into cyphesis-C++ to get rid of all the nasty
warnings it spits out.
<P>WorldForge main website is down, so announcing Acorn
today does not seem to be an option
<P>Acorn debs are now up, and apt-getable thanks to
Demitar.Thu, 1 Feb 2001 21:04:31 GMT1 Feb 2001http://www.advogato.org/person/alriddoch/diary.html?start=0
http://www.advogato.org/person/alriddoch/diary.html?start=0<P>Started work on a media metadata server for
<A href="http://www.worldforge.org/">WorldForge</a>. Basic
concept is that it will deliver entries from a database
over an Atlas connection in response to queries made
by a client. Format for the metadata is currently using
the Atlas schema proposed by Karsten Laux for the config
file sprites.xml used in uclient.
<p> <P>Did some more work on the whitepaper describing Acorn
internals, and put some more time into infrastructure
work for Acorn. Should be able to announce Acorn to
the world this weekend.